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AbdelHameid, Danya1and Jeremy Bassis2 (College of William and Mary1, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor2)A LABORATORY-SCALE ANALOGUE MODEL TO PROBE ICE SHEET GROUNDING LINE DYNAMICSUncertainty in sea level rise centers on the potential mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) and West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). Large ice sheets, such as the GIS and WAIS, flow and spread out onto the adjacent ocean, becoming thinner in the direction of flow and eventually detaching at the grounding line — the point at which ice sheet thickness is sufficiently small enough to allow for flotation and detachment of the ice sheet from the underlying bedrock. The grounding line can retreat or advance along the bedrock profile of an ice sheet in response to melting (from the base or surface) of the ice sheet and accumulation via snowfall on the ice sheet surface. Changes in the position of the grounding line are crucial to the stability of an ice sheet. Much research into grounding line dynamics has been observational or numerical and few efforts have used physical analogue models. Simple, physical analogue models may have the potential to improve our understanding of the fundamental dynamics of grounding lines under idealized, more generalized conditions (i.e. not tied to a specific glaciological regime). Here, we describe a laboratory scale analogue model to examine grounding line dynamics. Our model is typified by a viscous fluid, dispersed on an angled ramp into an inviscid, denser fluid. Using a commercially available digital camera, we are able to measure strain and strain rates and compare our measurements to simple numerical and analytical models. Further, our model can be used as an educational tool to provide an interactive demonstration of glacier flow and grounding line dynamics to elementary and middle school students.​